Mourning in America - Trump Year One: November '16 to

Look past the GOP takeover of Washington, however, and the outlook for Democrats is even more alarming.

it's been pointed out that republicans are nearing the level of state legislature control necessary to pass federal constitutional amendments

xpost Yeah, this is another straight-up false equivalence. There's plenty to criticize about Clinton but there's no evidence, from his decades in the public eye, that Trump is anything other than a venal con man who operates purely out of self-gratification and gives zero shits about anyone else.

i don't think anyone here disagrees

It's a false equivalence two different directions though -- Trump is more of a straight-up con man, but Trump was neither in public office nor known to be a likely future president during any of it.

it's been pointed out that republicans are nearing the level of state legislature control necessary to pass federal constitutional amendments

― mookieproof, Wednesday, November 23, 2016 11:55 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark

republicans don't have the 2/3 of the senate necessary though

it's been pointed out that republicans are nearing the level of state legislature control necessary to pass federal constitutional amendments

Amendments need a 2/3 majority in the House and Senate. Ain't gonna happen.

Has anyone written a really clear explainer on the constitutional amendment issue, because I'm a lawyer and I don't understand it. Is it state legislature convention OR 2/3 in house and senate, or do you need both?

passing amendments through congress is one method authorized by article V of the constitution.

the other way to pass amendments, which has never been used, doesn't require the senate.

"The other method of passing an amendment requires a Constitutional Convention to be called by two-thirds of the legislatures of the States. That Convention can propose as many amendments as it deems necessary. Those amendments must be approved by three-fourths of the states."

So they are close to the number to call a convention, but not to actually approve amendments?

xpost my understanding was that a constitutional convention involved only the state legislatures.

apologies if i'm failing US Civics here and making an ass out of myself!

from wikipedia

http://i.imgur.com/wDK62Yw.png

they need 34 states to call it, 38 states to ratify.

currently there are 32 republican-controlled states legislatures. however, only 26 of those 32 have a republican governor. i'm not sure if a governor would have to consent to calling a constitutional convention or if they could just be over-run by their republican legislature hordes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_state_legislatures

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxEnkmbXAAAqTTW.jpg

dems now control 13 state legislatures (26%)

yikes why is this so bleak

how did this happen

i mean havent we been reading obituaries for the republican party for the past 8 years due to demographic shifts

gerrymandering

the obituaries were for the office of president

Anyone who’s had doubts over Donald Trump’s claims that he’s fighting to better the lives of ordinary Americans can put their suspicions to rest, because the president-elect just put his money where his mouth is. Over the weekend, Trump generously paid out $25 million of his own money to help out thousands of people who’d been defrauded of their life savings through a vicious bait-and-switch scheme.

http://www.clickhole.com/article/faith-humanity-restored-after-these-students-were--5180

democratic party is not good at their jobs (getting elected)

@JamesSurowiecki
Look at Wisconsin. Dems got 168,000 more votes in State Assembly races in '12, but GOP won 60 of 99 seats.

Natural to say: both parties do it. But it's just objectively false. GOP has been far more ruthless about gerrymandering to cement its power

meanwhile, nate silver finds voting correlated much more with education level than income http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/education-not-income-predicted-who-would-vote-for-trump/

i'd like to think that the left will spend the next 2 to 4 years focusing on election reform (appointing a non-partisan group to assign districts, or JUST USING A GODDAMN COMPUTER TO DO IT, FUCK!, getting rid of electoral collage, campaign finance reform, etc), but i have the feeling we'll just be reacting to whatever disasters trump dumps on us, inbetween making fucking stupid jokes about his hands

sorry, i'm hungry. i'm stepping away

gerrymandering is definitely a huge part of how we got here, but it's also worth noting that the GOP strategically focused on state legislatures in a way that I don't believe the Democratic party did. The only way to push back (aside from hoping to god that that recent Wisconsin court decision overturning gerrymandered districts gets upheld and becomes precedent) is to strengthen local and state-level parties. And to not get blindsided again, which I understand they did in 2010. I really think the party should have a lot of people wargaming all the worst things the GOP could possibly do and how to counter, because I'm pretty sure the GOP will do anything it can get away with.

Like if the Democrats had just woken up and realized, back in the years leading up to 2010, that a census year presented a great opportunity for the GOP to strike at the state level, they might have shored up key seats in state legislatures that were vulnerable. The party has been way too focused on a top-down approach, thinking the presidency will deliver everything else.

Also I kind of think that's the right way to do politics anyway, at the ground level. No amount of focus grouping and think tanking is going to be a complete substitute for strong local parties with a feel for their communities.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was able to get in touch with Trump by cold-calling his personal cell phone through a number provided by champion Australian golfer Greg Norman.

dark lols

Democrats just need to take a page from Trump's book and start running as republicans. The tribalism is so facile and entrenched that they'll get scores of votes based on nothing but that '-R' next to their name.

^^^

I mean, it's a deeply cynical move, but when in Rome you might as well learn how to fiddle.

I think that's a cheat code you can only use if you're rich/famous (bloomberg, schwarzenegger etc.) - since you get free entry to the club and don't have to work your way up via local party politics

but like we could totally have bruce springsteen 'decade to become a republican' and run for president, that would 100% work

Someone in Ohio did that recently -- she was as member of the Cuyahoga County Republican Committee and ran for the Ohio House as a Republican. She lost to the incumbent Democrat, then resigned and revealed that she herself is actually a Democrat. Not that incumbents generally have any trouble getting re-elected, but see if you can locate a reason why Republicans may not have been running to vote for her in droves:

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2016/11/cuyahoga_county_gop_central_co.html

i really kinda think the lesson of the election is that real celebrity trumps political celebrity and basically any famous enough* actor could beat pretty much any politician. *thus why fred thompson doesn't qualify for this rule

https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/videos/10155136713370725/

I think I figured out who Donald Trump reminds me of, it's Tommy Wiseau

that and being dead xp

yeah the 'maybe these idiots just voted for him because he's famous' narrative should get at least as much play as the 'he truly connected with a wounded wwc' narrative currently does

'these idiots want to be entertained while the ship goes down'

betsy devos for secretary of education

That is fucking GROSS

rip public schools

god FUCK these people

my office manager's kid goes to a charter school - it went bust literally two weeks into the school year and the kid had to find a new high school in september. ridic.

creationist, married to amway heir, brother of blackwater founder

brother is, rather

ugh gross

On behalf of all of Michigan I apologize for the entire DeVos family and their hideous partners in evil the VanAndels, Calvinism, Amway, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, ALEC, Eric Prince, and all the hellspawn that we have vomited out over the years thanks to our Dutch Calvinist forebears and the religious right.

lol xposted to mookie but yeah he hit the high points.